Independence and the Economy – The Facts

Share the video that proves Scotland will be a wealthy independent country.

Scotland can more than afford to be independent. Independence will make Scotland’s economy stronger and its people better off financially. That is the clear evidence from Business for Scotland in this short animated video for you to share with your undecided friends and business contacts.

Control over Scotland’s finances means we will gain the powers to create more jobs. Independence also saves Scotland money currently wasted by Westminster governments. This means we can invest in new opportunities for Scotland.

This video was crowdfunded by 472 individual donors who all believe that independence is the business opportunity of a lifetime.

About the author

Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp

Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp is the Founder and Chief Executive of Business for Scotland. Before becoming CEO of Business for Scotland he ran a small social media and sales & marketing consultancy.

With a degree in business, marketing and economics, Gordon has worked as an economic development planning professional, and in marketing roles specialising in pricing modelling and promotional evaluation for global companies (including P&G).

Gordon benefits (not suffers) from dyslexia, and is a proponent of the emerging New Economics School. Gordon contributes articles to Business for Scotland, The National and The Huffington Post.

7 Comments

Sorry to go off topic a bit but…
If the UK votes to leave the EU and an Independent Scotland has voted to stay in, what benefits might there be for Scotland if any?
Are there any areas that might bring English businesses North?
Thanks
Ian

My issue with all of this ‘Scotland has loads of money and will more than be able to pay its way’ stuff is that all of the financials are based on Scotland with a huge amount of (I have seen an estimate of, but can’t verify, 95,000) people working for the British government so are paid by the UK and then pay tax back to the UK, even if Scotland take 10% of these on to the books (unlikely we will need that much as bloated public sectors are actually proven to be the only sector where economies of scale actually don’t appear to be a thing – ’03 report into public sector spending by EU, perhaps even more relavent for the UK because we never get that sort of thing right – Wembley, Edinburgh Trams, Scotish Parliament etc etc!) then we will have 85k people out of work and the tax they paid (not to mention the wages they would be spending) gone. That is my issue, please answer it (properly mind, not just with references to Scotgov white papers on oil – let’s leave that out of this, it’s a bonus, not a salary so we wouldn’t get a mortgage on it if we were a household!) also, if you are going to attack me for being ‘non Scottish’ as is usually the case when any No’s say anything the Yes don’t agree with then I would say that, very legitimately from what has actually made this country as great as it is and in a position where this is even a thing we are discussing, I am British first and then Scottish so just because I don’t vote Tory doesn’t mean that I can’t appreciate that they deserve to be in power as much as anyone else because that is how democracy works, I never voted SNP either!

@Mike – Is it not the case that the proportion of public servants you mention (roughly 10%, i.e. according to population) is the proportion paid for but not necessarily working in Scotland? Most of the ministries are based in London – paid for by Scottish residents proportionately, but not bringing back any obvious tax take within Scotland. One of the worries about a No vote is that the Barnett Formula follows this proportion while significant parts of the public sector are likely to be privatised by the UK Government (as is already happening in the health sector), thereby squeezing the budget for the Scottish Government regardless of policy decisions or practical considerations (such as geography or population needs).

It could be argued that a No vote is a vote for continuing a radical, experimental restructuring of the economy to favour the financial sector (banking, pensions and insurance), at the expense of both the flexible part of the economy that is small to medium businesses (manufacturing and services) and the part of the economy that underpins others’ efforts, the public sector (schools, roads, hospitals, etc).

Ok, this is a great video, and I want to share it, but (and maybe I’m the only one, sigh) I don’t understand what “Independence will save Scotland more than £3.5 billion per term”. What does ‘per term’ mean?